What is a general ballpark distance that anyone shoots at the range. Training, practice and/or a "typical" range trip?

Usually from 7 to 30 yds. Sometimes a bit more more, sometimes less.

7 to 25 on occasion but  mostly 7 to 15...  much past that and these older eyes are not so good,... I can hit a 8 inch plate at 25.. but not every time...

It really depends on the drills, but the majority is from contact ranges to 25 yards.  The longer distances are more target shooting than close-quarters engagement drills.  

ROCK6

I don't see a point to shooting at less than 15 yards unless you're doing very small focus practice like the dot drill.

I try to shoot anywhere from inside 1m on paper targets all the way to 50m on steel.  The object is to not shoot the same distance all the time and to vary often.  My range allows for it to be done if you can get a private range instead of one of the community pistol ranges.

I see a lot of point shooting inside 15.  Have you ever practiced drawing and shooting from retention at 1m then moving while shooting to 5-7.  I also like to start at 10-15 and shooting while moving closer in.

Indoors I start at 25 yards and work my way in to 3-4 yards

Outdoors I do drills from concealment, up close, out far, move, shoot, reload multiple targets out to 50 ish yards.

All my cc gun practice is between 3 to 10 yards.

I do play at longer distances with .22lr handguns

Lately I haven't been shooting closer than 12 yards.  It's the longest distance in my house.  I've been shooting there and then I'll shoot further too.  

I will shoot at the proverbial 7 yards every once in a while, just to get a not so in depth feel of what I can do with a certain gun type thing.  But like most people say, the problems show up at further distances.  So I will do the same at 25 yards or 25 meters too.

Mostly at about 12- 15 yards indoors and that is because my club does a plate shoot at about that distance.

My targets are mostly 50 ft slowfire so I sometimes push it ot to the full 50 .

Out doors we have a 50yd range but most of my pistol target work is still at 50 ft. Now and then (for shits and grins) I will go up to the 100yd range and see how close I can get to the junk folks leave on the berm. It has a nice sandy berm so you can see most of your hits and walk them in.

When teaching pistol classes I use big sheets of paper with stickers at about 6 or 7 yards so the students can see every hit.

There isn't one right answer to the OPs question

It doesn't have a training value to me anymore unless I'm doing annoyingly small group shooting, even then my goal is clean dot torture at 15 yards.

It's just not far enough for my shots to break down. Did a lot of shooting up close to get there though.

Do you practice drawing from concealment? Trying to speed things up?

I use Shoot Smart a lot because it is close to home and on the Private Suites I can shoot my M16 on full auto (which is prohibited on the majority of the ranges here). The only problem is that it is only 15 yards. Before I retired our quarterly firearms qualifications had us shooting at 1 1/2 yds to 25 yds. Some of our training had us drawing and shooting while moving, shooting out of vehicles, night fire, shooting at multiple targets, transitioning from shotgun to pistol, and other tactical scenarios.

For CCW  I shot at 5 yards/15 feet.

I think that is a realistic distance for 99% of the situations I might encounter as a civilian.

At that range I can point and shoot and keep the shots on a paper plate

I do shoot farther but with deliberate aimed shots

Yes, frequently. I shoot USPSA and IDPA.

IMHO most people practice at too long a distance for DEFENSIVE handgun. About 80% of my shooting is from contact to 7 or so yards. How many REALISTIC scenarios can you find yourself in at say greater than 30 feet?

7 & 10 yards most often for a couple of reasons:

1. Probably the most common distance in USPSA matches
2. I'm lazy and don't like moving targets around

I do practice 25 yard Bill Drills and 30 yard Blake Drills.  I also like to ring steel at 40-50 for confidence booster.

I rarely practice at 15 or 20.  Probably should.

If you can shoot at 20, you can shoot at 7/10 yards.

I don't usually shoot beyond 8-10 yards. I'm thinking I should be shooting farther out.  I was also looking at some of these http://pistol-training.com/drills.

In our state a dude was taking potshots at people on a walking trail.  I don't really know the distance, but I'm pretty sure it was further than 7-10 yards.  My guess is a lot more.  There have been plenty of longer range wacko shootings.  I think the police that responded to the Sikh Temple shooting up here were shooting at a pretty fair poke.  

I think there is a good chance a shooting could happen farther than 7 yards.

9mm...7, 10 and 15yds.
AR... 25yd (BUIS), 25 & 50yd (red dot), 75 & 100yd with scope.

I'm a member at a great indoor range for the above, but want to find a longer range for some distance shooting. Hoping to work up to 1000yd during the next year.

I shoot at 7-10 yards for my self defense drills - in large part because in a real world shoot I'll probably be shooting at 3-5 yards, but under stress.  If I can keep the shots in the A zone at 7-10 yards under time pressure, it's a better reflection of the groups I'm likely to get at shorter ranges under real world stress.

I will also practice some shooting from retention positions, but again will do it at 3 yards rather than 0-1 yards.  Form (keeping the support hand out of the way) matters more than the actual range to the target, and again doing well at 3 yards improves confidence at 0-1 yards.

I also devote some time to slower fire at 25 yards ranges to ensure I don't don't sacrificing the basics of sight alignment and trigger control, and most days I'll finish up on an 8" x 24" target at 100 yards, where I'll normally get hits about 80% of the time.  People underestimate how far a pistol or revolver can be effective in the hands of a decent shot.

With some of my more accurate revolvers, like my 6" Model 19 and 6" Model 66 or 4" Model 15, I'll also shoot 6" and 8" steel plates at 50 yards.   It's again good practice in trigger control and sight alignment and a real confidence builder.

Typically 3 to 30 yards, but as close as 0.5 and as far as 100 if I'm working specific skills like retention or precision.

Generally 15 yds in the backyard on my max range of 35 yds when home.  I handgun hunt so practice out to 100 yds with the Contenders or Smith N frames.  Used to do a lot of 100m shooting with my issued M9 and couple of times out to 300m on known ranges in Iraq.


CD

Wow, 300 for the M9.  That would be something.  I did 200 one time.  And got on paper....  How high do you hold at 300?

This is with a 1911, but it's similar for any handgun. Once you find the right index point for the rear sight, it's actually not too hard.

Attached File

Similiar as posted.  Just kept adding more elevation to I figured where to hold on the iron maiden.


CD

Typically I'll train between 3 and 30 yards (and every distance in between), depending on what drills or scenarios I'm working on. 

Sometimes I'll bump back to 50 to shoot groups or a Bill Drill.  

A lot of times I'll add difficulty to an otherwise "close" target presentation by adding no-shoots or hard cover.  

As far as a benchmark goal, I think the average CCW dude ought to be able to print 6 out of 6 Alphas on demand from his carry gun at 25 yards on a USPSA metric target with no time limit.

He should also train distance changeup scenarios and transition drills like Blake Drill and Accelerator.

He should also train shooting on the move at various distances.  

CCW guys should be well-rounded and proficient in all areas, instead of training in just one part of the bell curve. 

 

Thanks for that!  Might help with my XD45 tactical.  

I think I had more of a 100 yard hold as shown, with the M9.  The biggest difference is that the POI on my M9 is to the dot and not the top of the post......  Even at 100 I'm having to obscure the target more than I really want to.  My 1911's and XD45 shoot to the top of post, at reasonable ranges.

I've posted this a few other places today, but I took the video this evening. I was shooting both my AR's (11.5" and 16" uppers), Glock 19, S&W 642, and 870 build.

I routinely draw and fire from 7-40 yards as part of my weekly practice. Sometimes I'll jump over to the 50-100 just for a little distance shooting. I would tend to agree with some peoples thinking that 25 is plenty.

Shooting at 30 yards and beyond does build confidence.

Agreed.  When you can drill a torso at 50, heads at 10 surrounded by no-shoots aren't intimidating

My current ranges are 36 yards and less, 100 and 200 yards. As I acquire more steel I will probably be able to push it out to a maximum of 300 yards. Whatever range I'm shooting my rifle at my pistol will be shot at. While it's mostly just for fun past 100 at 100 and in I have found that one can be very deadly with a good self defense handgun and ammo it likes if you do your part.

A benefit I discovered when I started doing this year's ago: shooting at 100 makes you really watch the basics and concentrate on every little aspect of the shot. When you move back in you will find you have suddenly become better at that shorter distance b/c to the human mind it becomes easier, even if you are still at 75 yards. 15 yards and in at that point you can almost close your eyes.

Iron sights and cheap ammo on a paper plate or 8 1/2" X 11" sheet of paper is no problem. Push yourself.

For me its all about realistic expectations, with my carry pistol I train at about 20-30 feet. Honestly Im not going to engage further than that, especially under stress, too many variables for me to be comfortable. Besides a 3" barrel 380 isnt going to do much good beyond an immediate threat. I may shoot farther than that, and I have shot most of my handguns out to 50-75 yards just to play around and see if I can, but I dont do so with any regularity.

Self defense?  Rarely beyond about 20 yards.  Some much closer (3 yards).

3-gun Bullseye?  25 yards and 50 yards.  One handed (of course).

Seven to twelve yds.  Only very occasionally out to 25 yds.  If you can shoot small groups up close, you can shoot small groups farther out, you just have to know where to hold farther out.

Lots of reasons to shoot at less than 15 yards.

Speed vs accuracy, drawing from holster, target transition, shooting on the move, etc.

I started shooting USPSA and now 90% of my pistol training is at less than 15 yards. I do shoot farther to practice, but fundamentals are taught/learned/polished at the close ranges IMO.

The pistol league we just joined is 10 yards and less, drawn from a holster.

All stages timed with required mag changes......been great training so far (offhand / barriers to come in later events).

If you're practicing for cilivian gun fights 3 to 10 yards is ideal training. The vast majority of civilians gun fights happen 5 yards or less. You can see this on countless of YouTube videos. Distance is less important than drawing your weapon and double tapping. How fast you draw your gun, the speed and accuracy of your double tap can determine your fate.

7-25 because that's pretty much all that's allowed at the ranges I go to.

Less than 15 yards can hide lots of issues with your fundamentals. I'm not saying I've never done it, but drilling the head A zone at 10 yards just makes you feel good, practice should involve pushing your limits.

I do all the drawing, moving, and shooting multiple targets, I just do it from 15-30 yards. Makes actually shooting at 5,10,12, etc., even better. 

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here.

I fully agree fundamentals are best taught and learned at relatively close distance.

But the fundamentals are polished and refined and challenged at far distances.  

As has been noted, a lot of errors can be masked at close range and distance shooting offers more significant diagnostic data.  

You can royally screw up trigger control at close range and still print alphas.  Every slight mistake is going to be apparent at 25+.

Why do you train double taps?  Isn't two shots sort of an arbitrary number?

Especially at <5 yards.  

I am not an expert in gunfights. I don't pretend to be. This is my personal opinions from watching countless of civilians gunfights videos over the years. It kind of like a hobby for me. Not all of the gunfights the good guys won. Almost all the good guys deaths have something in common. The bad guy was able to recover from being shot and killed the good guy.

Double tap does not guaranteed 100% incapacitation. With that said you keep shooting until your opponent don't move. While the vast majority of gunfights are 1 vs 1. There are no shortage of videos where 2 or more criminals vs 1 good guy. Civilian gunfights have one overriding theme. In over 90% of the cases, the civilian shoot the criminal while their attention isn't on them. In the criminal back.

The problem occur when you're dealing with 2 or more criminals. That's when it get a little tricky. Most of the times the criminal are not bunch up together for you to hit like in the shooting range or competitions. They are often spread out. The good guy may faced with two or more opponents in opposite directions. For me the correct way of handling these types of scenario (2vs1). Correctly ID the Alpha male, the person that is most likely to shoot to kill. When that criminal back is turn on me. I'll double tap him, immediately switch my attention to the second target double tap him. Switch back to first target because he is the one that will likely kill me if he recovered. Make sure he isn't moving and move back to the second target. All this will happen very fast.

To me double tapping design to give me that extra seconds I need to switch back my attention to the first target. I've have seen videos where the good guy put one bullet on the bad guy back. Than switch to the second criminal to neutralize him. Only to be shot in the back and killed by the first guy he shot. In most cases the good guys never went back to the first target.

The David Jackson story which is being aired on Youtube commercials was very lucky. He double tapped the first guy than move to the second. Never move back his attention to the first criminal he shot. The first criminal he shot recovered but instead of shooting David in the back he decided to flee. One of the barbers with his conceal gun did back up David and probably had an effect on the first criminal to flee instead of shooting it out. There are lot of shootout videos on the internet. I highly recommend watching them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2NV6dgYom0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hQDSX5tovw

Indoor I usually just set the target at 10 yards.

Outdoor I put steel targets at 15-25 yards (6-10 inch plates). Sometimes one at 50.

I'm just starting to practice dot torture at 3-5 yards. I'm not good at shooting left handed.

I shoot handguns from 3-50 yards, but mostly 7-15. Mostly shoot club matches in USPSA, and most of our targets are inside 15 yards. I mostly practice what I'm going to see in those matches.

With a SD gun 3-15yds. Hunting guns I shoot at about 45yds just because I have a spot at that distance that is easy to simulate a supported hunting type shot I typically set up with

10 to 25 yds habndgun / subgun but as of late I have been doing some boltgun long range (100 to 300 yds)

Need to go back to handgun next trip